Many people enter into kundalini yoga practices with the idea it will make them healthier, more attractive, more alive energetically. These can be gifts of this or other form of yoga, which are ancient practices that make the body more limber and the spirit more peaceful. But for some these yogas will also open up the potential for the deconstruction and transformation of the identity with the personal self. This may sound appealing to a few, but it can actually be very challenging and disorienting because in can uproot all your beliefs, defenses, and ways of looking at life, and also trigger massive energy releases, and unfamiliar feelings and sensations.

If your life is not aligned with Truth this awakening of kundalini can change your lifestyle radically. It is not commonly understood that a full realization of who we are and a remembrance of ourselves as "nothing" and "All" does not result in an improvement in the "personal" self but a dissolution of attachment to that "self". It is not as if you forget who you have been, but you begin to see the world and your human-ness through new eyes, to stop arguing with the world and all its foibles and disasters, and to live in response to the moment around you -- in the NOW, as Eckart Tolle has pointed out. This shift does not come easily for most people, but is a gradual movement that requires consciousness of how thoughts move to entrap us into identity every day. Many feel awake and open occasionally, and irritated to be trapped in old patterns the next moment. To the extent we are flexible and committed to awakening not only our energy, but our consciousness, we can learn to flow with the ups and downs, the emergence of repressed memories, and the changes in our lives. It is useful to enter this process with appreciation for the gift of life and who you are because the overlay of self-criticism or fear of the world will inhibit your ability to become the free spirit you actually are. Our essence, and our participation in the fullness of the human experience is a great gift not to be discarded as we feel the wonder of simple beingness that plays beneath the surface.

The true function of kundalini awakening is to prepare our energy field to become open and available to the realization of Truth, to the sensate and energetic knowing of our participation in all that exists. It initiates a journey and a passage way beyond good health and longevity (which are not guaranteed in a physical form, but inevitable for the spirit.)

Having just published "The Awakening Guide" and "The Kundalini Guide" on Amazon I seem to be on a writing binge right now so I'm putting out articles often on my Awakened Living blog at shantiriver.wordpress.com, sending articles to various e-zine sites, am learning to use twitter, and linked-in more efficiently. I hope my words reach those who need them -- those on this journey to self-realization. Please pass them forward to anyone who needs to know. My websites hold many basics but I hope to keep updating on the blogs. Comment and question where you can if it feels useful to you.